Lufia & the Fortress of Doom

Very nearly as bog-standard as a JRPG can get, though every aspect is handled at least competently. The bulk of the midgame falls into the exhausting pattern of "find new town, fix their self-contained problem to proceed" which usually involves at least a two- or three-step daisy chain of dungeons and tracking down NPCs. That said, I'll actually disagree wth Blah-Blee's review and say the writing is probably the strongest point, with an impressive amount of personality in the dialogue - at least by 90s localization standards, anyway. Compare it to Breath of Fire, which came out only a couple of months prior, and it really highlights how important the script quality is in getting the player invested. BoF's setting and scenario are way more interesting and unique, and it has (a few) more gameplay quirks, but that doesn't mean much when the basic NPC dialogue and character interactions are all so wooden and awkward. It's not like Lufia's THAT much better, mind. But it didn't feel like nearly as much of a chore to finish once the novelty wore off. With worse writing this would have been a complete flatline for me.

Heard for years that the first Lufia game was a bit of a dud. Well, I was pleasantly surprised by it. I thought it was quite solid and had me invested in the story enough to actually care about the ending. Would definitely recommend this one to anyone who enjoys old school JRPG's.